Kishore Bhimani, the voice that relayed to the world that a Test had been tied in Madras, with the scores level of both the teams with all wickets down, only for the second time in cricket history, has passed on—just 22 days after the demise of the Australian star of that match, Dean Jones.
“It’s a tie, it’s tie,” Bhimani repeated in his staccato voice on air as left-arm spinner and No.11 Maninder Singh was adjudged leg before wicket to Greg Matthews, with Ravi Shastri at the other end, having taken a single to ensure India didn’t lose.
***
There are measly obituaries in most mainline dailies but in the Bombay tabloid Mid-Day, sports editor Clayton Murzello (above) doffs his hat.
“His willingness to use his contacts for good causes is best illustrated by Jyotsna Poddar, who put together the book, Cricketing Memories in 1987 which had the best names in the game recalling their funny moments. The proceeds of the publication went to a fund aimed at helping retired cricketers.
“Sir Donald Bradman, who by then had stopped writing Forewords to books, agreed to pen one because of this noble reason.”
***
The Calcutta newspaper The Telegraph pays tribute on its city pages to the man who covered 157 Tests and 203 one-day internationals for the city’s rival daily, The Statesman.
Bhimani wrote in The Statesman on the historic victory in April 1976:
“In the dusty twilight of a deserted stadium I gaze upon a wizened old groundsman sweeping away…. So much has happened here in the dressing room under the Geddes Grant Stand — Clive Lloyd’s decision to declare; the promotion of ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath and Bishen Bedi‘s persistence with his own bowling and the confident last-ditch stand of the never-say-die Patel and Madan Lal and the lone Indian cheering hoarse in the Errol dos Santos Stand…”.
The Telegraph records that besides cricket, football and rugby, Kishore Manubhai Bhimani also commentated on horse racing and was a steward at the Calcutta turf club.
“Bhimani owned his first horse Time and Tide in the early 70s,” said Pritheesh Verma, a judge at RCTC. “He would jointly own a horse with Ravi Shastri in later years,” added Cyrus Madan, one of the stewards now.“
***
In Kishore Bhimani’s own paper, Aditi Roy Ghatak offers warm memories of a colleague who sulked whenever he had to work indoors.
“He came and went at will, and sulked every minute he had to work indoors, typed out his copy occasionally on the desk, choosing to type elsewhere and only submitting it and generally growled about everything.”
IJR 